30.11.2004
Trimaran title sponsor B&Q is the biggest DIY retailer in Europe and third biggest in the world. http://www.diy.com
KEY DATA AFTER 3 DAYS 7 HOURS: 2 hours 7 minutes behind Joyon
(data communicated by Thrane MiniC via BT YAHOO!)
Lat/Long: 36 14 N / 13 25 W (350 miles west of Gibralter)
Average Boat speed: 20.58 knots (gybed at 1400 now heading SW)
True Wind speed: 25.1 knots, increasing
Distance sailed so far: 938 miles
Update based on data recorded at 1510 GMT...check http://www.teamellen.com for the latest data updated hourly...
IN BRIEF:
* TO GAIN CAN TAKE PAIN (AND LOTS OF IT!) HAVING SPENT LAST 18HRS GOING SOUTH EAST, NOW GYBED AND BACK ON TRACK headING SOUTH WEST..."It's been a pretty painfull night quite light winds, trying to get towards the low (and more breeze)...
* INCREASE TO BREEZE CAME LATER THAN EXPECTED...Ellen put off hoisting gennaker (only really capable of taking 20 knots of breeze) to preserve herself, but then watched her advantage on Joyon's record turn into a deficit by mid-morning today...standing it no longer she went for the gennaker...but then...Sod's law as follows...
* QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"Got the gennaker up...wind was too light for too long...I had to put it up, we were going too slowly and not deep enough...I'm ******. Because of the strong breeze I had the sails all stacked back in the cockpit...took me 10 minutes to get the sail forward and another 35 minutes full-on doing moves lines, pulling sails up. No comparison to the monohull, it's so hard. I could have had it up for the last 12 hours. But, of course, wind has shifted now! So I will have to take it down again soon to gybe..."
* ELLEN MAKES CRITICAL GYBE THIS AFTERNOON headING BACK ON TRACK...the timing of the gybe by as little as 2-3 hours will have had a big effect on where she is in 2-3 days time in terms of east/west longitude - gybing too early and in 2 days she would have been too far west and feeling light air effects of anticyclone in the west...Because the windshifts are quite defined in the next 24 hours, she will have been locked in to a track south once she gybed. So B&Q held her course south east sailing closer to the centre of the depression before gybing and then expecting a fast but bumpy ride round the west side of the low tracking towards Spain.
* B&Q HAS COVERED 938 MILES SO FAR AND WILL SEE GALE FORCE WINDS TONIGHT FOR THE FIRST TIME ON THIS ATTEMPT...Ellen predicting 40+ knots for 4-6 hours "I will be glad to see the back of the low in 24 hours"....
http://www.teamellen.com for webcam, positions, animations, breaking news
ELLEN CALL EARLY THIS MORNING:
JUST HOW HARD DO YOU PUSH?
"Hard all the time in your head, is it the right thing for the record...should I just grunt up... But only day 2 and not far enough into this to see how you are performing against the other guy. If not enough then I'll have to do more."
LOOKING FORWARD TO 40 KNOTS?
" Downwind 35-40 knots shouldn't be too bad...may furl up genoa and may not bother putting up staysail just go with 2 reefs - thing is without headsail, a lot more loads on the back of the boat.
Bit tired (big yawn!) went to sleep in cuddy for a while when breeze went light.
Right now, can see huge cloud with me...a monster...going to have a lot of wind - contemplating first reef."
EXTRACTS FROM AUDIO CONFERENCE AT 1200 GMT: courtesy of Geolink/Iridium
What is going on at the moment?
"Right now, we are just on top of a low pressure system between the Spanish and Portuguese coast. It's pretty windy right now, the wind is going to increase over the next half hour. It's been a pretty painfull night quite light winds, trying to get towards the low. We've been trying to get between the low and the high pressure but, unfortunately, we haven't been able to manage to do that as quickly as we wanted. So progress seems to be a little slower than we'd hoped. But the boat seems to be sailing ok, I've had a little sleep and right now and boat speeds up above 15 knots so that's a good sign."
On the next big manoeuvre?
"We will be heading into a low and into high winds. Speeds should be over 40 knots. I've done a couple of sail changes this morning, I'm running with one reef and a gennaker, I'll change the gennaker in a couple of hours and be putting another reef in."
On how Ellen is feeling so far?
"I'm pretty tired and stressed, the sea state has been unstable so I'm pretty stressed all round. Right from the begining every decision has been critical, each day counts. I'm pretty much neck and neck with Francis at the moment, but the trip down to the Equator could change that. I am looking forward to settling into life on board and I will be glad to see the back of the low in the next 24 hours."
To listen to Ellen's audio live from on board B&Q, click on the audio/video icon on the menu bar above.
WEATHER ANALYSIS FROM COMMANDERS' WEATHER:
From: Commanders' Weather Corp 0600UTC Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Low pressure close to 34n/15w is moving slowly east. A little slower going next few hours as wind angle and wind speed not the greatest. The plan reindexs to come down the back side of the low today. As wind backs during the next few hours, will gybe to the SW and combination of the low, an approaching front, and high pressure well to the NW, should bring increasing wind and a better wind angle later Tues and Tues night. This should allow us to move fairly quickly. Will become quite rough for a time, though, especially later Tues and Tues evening with fairly strong winds (30-40 kts) for a time and big, confused seas.
Wind will then diminish Wed, but should still be quite reasonable. High pressure comes down towards 33-35n/26w on Thurs and there will likely be noticeably less wind near and north of 25n on Thurs. Therefore, our goal is to get south Wed and Thursday and stay in the better flow.
Will be in trade winds Thurs-Fri, direction NE to ENE, and speed indexly in the 12-20 kt range.
Summary: Rapidly increasing wind after 12-14UTC - will get rough with gusty
winds and seas will continue to build. Watch for scattered squalls around
for the next 6 hours.
Wind forecasts
Wind directions are TRUE, wind speed in kts, time is UTC
Tuesday, Nov 30
12: 010-030/12-18
15: 340-360/20-30
18: 340-360/30-40
Partly to mostly cloudy, squally showers likely when we get into
the strong NNW winds. Cloudy to partly cloudy after midnight tonight. Confusing seas while in the lighter winds, but becoming indexly N-NW seas 12-16 feet once into the stronger N-NW winds
Wednesday, Dec 1
00: 340-360/30-40
06: 350-010/20-25
12: 350-010/16-22, near 31 30N/18 10W, much lighter wind speeds west of
21-22W
18: 360-020/12-18, gybing soon
Cloudy to partly cloudy, seas12-16 ft early, then diminishing to 6-10 feet, NW-N swell late
http://www.commandersweather.com
Click here for further information on Sailing Speed Records http://www.sailspeedrecords.com and here for information on Ellen's campaign http://www.teamellen.com
For further information, please contact Offshore Challenges:
Lou Newlands or Lucy Harwood
T: +44 (0)870 063 0210
E: lou@offshorechallenges.com or lucy@offshorechallenges.com
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B&Q has over 350 stores in the UK, China and Taiwan and employs about 40,000 people. With its sister DIY company Castorama which has stores in France, Italy and Poland, B&Q is the biggest DIY retailer in Europe and third biggest in the world.
http://www.diy.com
LATEST AUDIO AVAILABLE FROM ELLEN MACARTHUR ONBOARD B&Q TRIMARAN
Download from :
http://www.ocftp2.com/audio/ellen
DAY 1 : SOLO NON-STOP ROUND THE WORLD RECORD ATTEMPT
“On top of a low pressure off the Spanish and Portuguese coast, the wind has increased in the last half hour. I will be gald to see the back of this 24hours.”
Today's Audio now available : em301104a_uk_e.mp3
Lucy Harwood
lucy@offshorechallenges.com
Tel +44 (0)870 063 0210
Fax +44 (0)207 6812912
Mobile +44(0)7966587060
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